


If You Like It, Put a Ring On It

by comtessedebussy



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Marriage Proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-18
Updated: 2012-11-18
Packaged: 2017-11-18 23:07:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/566275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/comtessedebussy/pseuds/comtessedebussy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The ring Dean always wears disappears. But Dean's  so used to it that he doesn't notice for several days that Cas put his own ring on Dean's finger.</p><p>(Please don't kill me for borrowing a title from Beyonce. It's relevant, I promise).</p>
            </blockquote>





	If You Like It, Put a Ring On It

**Author's Note:**

> I have a headcanon that the ring Dean always wears (until 5x06) belonged to Mary. He wears it for good luck, until something happens to it and it disappears in 5x06. This fic came out of that headcanon and a lot of feelings I have about rings and marriage proposals.

Dean doesn’t notice when Cas slips the ring on his finger.

Granted, he’s asleep at the time. Cas doesn’t need sleep, so he often shows upa t strange hours of day or night. Sometimes he sits and watches Dean sleep. Dean had found that creepy when they first met, but now it’s just what Castiel does. He watches over Dean. Mary had told him once that angels were watching over him. At least one is.  
The ring is silver. It looks like Mary’s, almost could be Mary’s, except that there’s something ethereal and unreal about the way it shines in the light. And, if he looks closely enough, there’s the small image of a feather, a black feather, carved into it. But otherwise it looks exactly like Mary’s ring, and for a few days Dean doesn’t even notice it. He’s so used to wearing Mary’s ring that it seems normal. 

He notices it at the sherrif’s office. Sam’s doing his sweet-voiced routine, where he wheedles and plies information out of people. Dean stands behind him, examining his hand while Sam does his thing, and that’s when he notices the ring. 

Later, with the monster dead and the case solved, Dean decides to take a much-needed break. He gets into the Impala and turns up the music and drives, as far as the eye can see. It’s his car and his music and sometimes when he drives like that, in the dark and in the middle of nowhere, he feels alive, just for a second. He stops and gazes up at the stars. He does that with Sam often, but sometimes he needs to be alone to work things out. He looks up at the sky and thinks that Castiel is somewhere up there, in Heaven. 

Except that Castiel’s not up there. Dean hears the familiar flutter of wings and doesn’t even need to turn to know that Cas is there. His presence is a reassurance Dean didn’t knew he needed. 

Normally Dean would greet Cas and joke and act all nonchalant and offer the angel a beer, but not this time. This time there’s an issue to deal with, and, entirely untrue to his nature, Dean Winchester decides to confront the question at hand.So after their usual greeting of “Hey Cas” and “Hello, Dean” (that fucking voice, Dean thinks. The way he says his name), Dean holds up his hand.

“Cas. Did you put this ring on me?”

“Yes, Dean.”

Well, that was easy. Now came the hard part.  
“Why?”

Castiel looked uncomfortable. Dean shifted uncomfortably.

“what?”

“Well, the song said…if I like it, to put a ring on it.”

There’s a silence for a few seconds before Dean manages to stutter “Beyonce? You’ve been listening to Beyonce?”

“She’s very popular among humans in your country, Dean. She’s difficult to avoid.”

“Yeah but…dude, you’re not, like, proposing to me, are you?” 

Castiel looked sad. Not even sad. Melancholy and longing and sadness, all mixed in equal parts on his normally stoic face. Dean suddenly regretted being so harsh. 

“No, Dean, I’m not proposing to you,” Castiel said. Any human who uttered that phrase would’ve made it sound like the beginning of an argument, a passive statement of a fact that masks a deeper anger beneath. With Castiel it was simply the truth. 

Dean took a step forward. “Cas?” he inquired. He could see that Castiel looked pained. 

“I envy you humans sometimes. Your lives - they are short, and filled with hard decisions, and pain, but you also have love and loyalty. You marry and you pledge to love and cherish another until death do you part. We angels, for all our might and immortality, never have that. We do not have love, except for our Father. We do not have soul mates. We don’t have souls. We are eternal and yet we spend eternity all alone, knowing nothing but obedience.” 

Dean smiled bitterly. 

“It’s not something all humans get, Cas.” He shrugged. “Not everybody is made for being loved and cherished.” 

Cas cocked his head to the side. His eyes looked so blue, even in the dark. 

“you don’t think you deserve to be loved?” he asked. Dean heard his voice, speaking the words from a memory, long ago. “You don’t think you deserve to be saved?” 

“Why would anyone love me?” he asked. “Why would an angel rescue me from Hell?” Castiel heard. 

“But I love you, Dean,” Castiel said. It wasn’t a confession. He didn’t say it as a revelation of a great emotional truth. He said it as a counterargument. 

Dean looked like he’d been punched in the gut. Castiel could almost see him about to double over, winded. 

“W-what?” he stammered. 

“I love you, Dean,” Castiel said, coming closer. Then, after a silence: “you don’t believe me.” 

“Nobody’s ever said that to me before, Cas. I don’t - ” he broke off as cas dropped to his knees. “Cas?” 

“I love you, Dean,” Castiel said, looking up. 

“Yeah, okay, come on, man, just get up, this is weird - “

“No. Not until you believe me, Dean. I’m an angel. I was made to obey God before all things. Yet I kneel before you, because I love you, perhaps even more than I love my Father. Why won’t you believe it?” 

Dean’s mouth went dry. He attempted to croak something out but Castiel had taken Dean’s hands in his by this point and started kissing them. If Dean had any coherency left he’d probably point out that this put him in the position of Cinderella, for God’s sake, but he was still too winded from all of Castiel’s revelations, and now Castiel was kissing every single one of Dean’s fingers. 

“I have died for you, Dean. I have heard human lovers on Earth pledge to die for their love. What would you have me do to make you believe?” 

Dean looked down at Castiel. He’d never seen the angel kneel before. There were two times when an adversary had forced Cas to his knees - Alastair and Gabriel - and Cas was a warrior then. But Dean had never seen him kneel in worship, and certainly had never considered that Castiel might kneel before anyone besides God. He was getting a slightly uncomfortable sappy vibe from the entire scene; it looks a little too much like the Disney movies he hadn’t seen but supposed resembled this. He’d heard of Romeo and Juliet, though, and the scene looked a little uncomfortably too much like that play. 

He reached a hand out, wanting so much to just run his fingers tenderly through Cas’ hair. He realized he was full to the brim, overflowing, even, with love for the angel who knelt before him. “I believe you,” he said gently, and Castiel knew it was true. He knew Dean. “just…get up here already, will you?” Dean asked.

Castiel rose gracefully from his knees. 

“I, um…well. I…feel the same way,” Dean said finally, waving a hand as if in explanation. 

“I know,” Castiel says, and Dean thinks that he really must introduce the angel to Star Wars because he had just done a totally perfect reenactment of Han Solo from The Empire Strikes Back without even trying. Then he mentally kicks himself for getting sidetracked by pop culture references when there were better things to be paying attention to.  
Dean looks down at the ring, twists it around his finger. It fits perfectly, the way his old ring had. He twists it absentmindedly. 

“So, uh, were you proposing, then?” Dean asks hesitatingly. 

“If that is what you would want, Dean, then yes, I would like to take the pledge to love, honor, and cherish.” As is so often with Castiel, the sappy cliche words sound entirely fresh and sincere on his lips. 

“Hell yes.” 

Castiel kisses him then. Dean doesn’t expect it, and his hands find their uncertain way around Cas’ body after a few seconds. It’s sweet and tender and everything Dean’s ever wanted. 

He still can’t say those words. He doesn’t learn to say those words for a long, long time. Castiel doesn’t mind. Dean’s actions have always spoken louder than words, and Castiel knows.


End file.
